Obama: 'This is not a crackpot church' (on Smerconish Monday)

Carrie Budoff Brown sends over the transcript from Obama's appearance, airing tomorrow, on the Michael Smerconish Show on 1210 AM WPHT in Philadelphia, from audio the show provided.

In the interview, Obama says he's talked to Wright in the past about "some of his views," and defends Trinity, saying "This is not a crackpot church."

Smerconish is a conservative talker who's been defending Obama's race speech.

OBAMA: I will be honest with you that I didn’t have that many conversations with him over the last year just because I have been so busy. I haven't been going to church. I wasn’t hearing a lot of these comments. The ones that are most offensive are ones that I never knew about until they were reported on. I had had conversations with him in the past – in fact from the day I first met him -- about some of his views. Understand this, something else that has not been reported on enough is despite these very offensive views, this guy has built one of the finest churches in Chicago. This is not a crackpot church. Witness the fact that Bill Clinton invited him to the White House when he was having his personal crises. This is a pillar of the community and if you go there on Easter on this Easter Sunday and you sat down there in the pew you would think this is just like any other church. ... So I don’t want to suggest that somehow, the loops you have been seeing typifies the services all the time. That is the danger of the YouTube era. It doesn't excuse what he said. But it gives it some perspective.

Q: Would the speech have come as a surprise to Wright?

OBAMA: No, I think he recognizes. When some these remarks first came to light were a year ago, and I actually called him and it created some tensions that were reported in the newspapers. He understood that his perspective on some of these issues were very different from mine and hopefully we could agree to disagree on some of these issues. I wasn’t familiar with some of the most offensive remarks that had come up otherwise we probably would have a more intense conversation.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0308/Obama_This_is_not_a_crackpot_church.html

I hope this week is the pushback against this soundbite smear journalism!

of those statements? Why did he lie?

Why don't you ask why Hillary lied about her recollection about being shot at?
or is there a double standard as to who you call a Liar?

JUST ADDRESS THE FUCKING ISSUE FOR ONCE

A little civility please?

A LOT OF US ARE

It will go much further if you calmly, define your point and you will probably get more positive reinforcement if you spend the most time assuming you are wrong first and then proving your point within that context, play devils advocate, reverse the roles, pretend you support the opposite candidate and then when you make your point it will be anchored in reality rather than anger and hyperbole.

If you "are sick of it here", its probably best to not go where it makes you so angry, wishing you well.

I think someone's here for you.

Flip our position walk in my shoes for a moment, if you were this calm and respectful and someone attacked you what would you thoughts be if you were me.

and I'm telling you to MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS

Get on with your bad self George.

Ok, I think someone needs to take a break from the keyboard for a few minutes.

Her words..."Why did he lie?", then two can play that game.

Was she actually "addressing the issue", or just fucking with the poster she was addressing?
Double standards much as to who you are going to yell at? :shrug:

My guess - he is a POLITICIAN and THAT'S WHAT POLITICANS DO.

You are parsing the sentence and putting it into a context and thus a timeframe that doesn't exist. It is not a lie to say he called about issues a year ago and then say he hadn't talked to him about things that happened in recent months.

It is because you read information that is not there into it.

When you parse sentences. you remove context, and context is how the sentences are understood and what some one is saying.

PLEASE STOP INJECTING YOURSELF WHERE YOU ARE NOT WANTED.....and FUCK your "PARSING" nonsense.

Goodluck with that George.

God - I want my DU back!

Being old(in board years) in no way gives the right to be obnoxious.

don't know how the 1000 posts were reached, but due to the disrespectful tone and use of caps, Skittles goes on ignore and I won't see Skittles again..thank goodness for ignore.

and you are saying you wonder how she managed 1000 posts? jesus christ. :rofl: :rofl:

she`s one of a kind here at du and she`ll kick your ass. this place would`t be the same without her....

He lied to ABC about Rezko donations and waaay later admitted they were far more substantial then he initially indicated, even though he "knew " that at the time as he dumped the money the very next day and didn't refer to it again until he had to.
He initially stated that his church wasn't "controversial" and then went on every conceivable TV News outlet saying he "wasn't aware" of Wright's statements. Only when an old NY Times article surfaced referencing Obama's "concerns " with Wrights comments did he admit he "knew".
Hillary doesn't paint herself as a saint, and she wouldn't be my first choice but Obama is a Bush in training and a media darling.This is sickening.

But it can not be good for your health for you to put yourself through things that are "sickening" to you.

Obama said he wasn't aware of a specific set of statements, until they were reported on, but that he did know in general that wright occasionally said some over the top things that might be offensive or shocking to some. Pretty much like every preacher ever in the history of preaching. That's what preachers do get on the pulpit and speak of hell fire, brimstone, damnation, as well as salvation, redemption, and kindness? In fact I doubt there's a preacher out there that couldn't have a few lines pulled from his sermons over the last 20 years, to make them look crazy or hateful.

I think that those who are so focused on the things Obama's pastor said, do so because they've realized they can't beat Obama himself.... their only hope is to somehow attach other people to him that they can more easily attack.

Seems transparent.

I'm sure that if we were to discover that one of the church's members was in the black panthers 30 years ago, we'd see the headline on DU, "Obama sure to lose GE because of ties to black panther party violence".

I self-deleted the exact same point down-thread because I'm sick of being pulled down into ignorant back-and-forth crap.




Peace:thumbsup:

or do you just talk shit?

Let the GOP do it or google it yourself. Try NYTIMES Obama, Wright.You'll get there. But you would rather stick your fingers in your ears ,wouldn't you?

that is exactly all you type all day is GOP info, not so good for a democrat to say let the GOP explain my point.

I have provided links and provided them. Usually just to "crickets".My point is , if Barack is the nom. the GOP can and will find the links that some refuse to admit exist.

and as much as I hate to do it, you are going on ignore now too. You're comments have become confrontational and vile and I won't subject myself to accidentally running across them anymore.

What you really meant to say is that you won't subject yourself to the truth any longer because it's too hard for you to stomach. Moron

There was obviously a lengthy pattern of that awful rhetoric and the e n t i r e congregation was into it...stomping, clapping, chanting back phrases. They were obviously v e r y used to that blatant racist environment. and obama/michelle/kids sat thru that for y e a r s. IF he were a leader and sincere...he would have put a stop to it---or left that "church".

How the hell do you know what went on in all those sermons the Obamas sat through?? Seems to me that the MSM had hours and hours and hours of Wright video and this was all they could come up with. Why don't you go check out the full sermons. Roland Martin posted full audio in AC360 blog Friday. I listened to both of them and what the damn MSM snipped out was way out of context of what Wright was preaching. In the 9-11 sermon Wright was preaching peace and that we needed to ask ourselves in our rage of vengeance if we wanted to as in Psalm 137 "O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us - he who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks."

The God Damn America if listened in entirety IMHO was a damnation of Republican policies currently in America.

I just love all the people who know all about that church from about a minute of snipped video!!!!!!!!!!! I call you hypocrites!

Does Oprah still go to it or was she inspired to start her own church?

Who judges all about that church based on MSM hit job! Fool!

He has constantly said he didn't hear the more offensive remarks. He has never denied talking to Wright about other, less controversial remarks (and in fact it is kind of silly to assume he never talked about those), nor did he deny hearing other, less controversial remarks. If you recall, he did mention he had about heard one, and only one, of the less controversial remarks made by Wright, and he heard it a year ago. At the time he took steps to distant Wright from himself and denounced that remark (and clearly that process involved talking about the remark, since Wright wasn't there when Obama announced his candidacy). Obama has been completely consistent regarding Wright.

get it out there what the real church is about; do not let the media-infested hysteria stand. Basically Obama is being swift-boated through Wright.

Church. People are left to believe as they wish. They do not have to think like their Pastor. People are getting this church mixed up with churches that you are out of if you do not think like the Pastor. Your belief is all with in your self and has not a lot to do with what people tell you to think. The congregation is the big thing of this type church and it has no set rules. 'Politico' had a good letter from some one from NH on the working of this church that I wish I could put on this site.. It would make it more understandable to people in other churches.

First BO cliams he had no idea, now he claims he talked to him about the crazy shit earlier?
Was he dodging sniper bullets, too?

Gone mostly unremarked about Obama's former pastor and his seemingly anti-patriotic remarks is the fact that he served in the military, in both the Marines and the Navy.

According to biographical information on the Trinity United Church of Christ's web site, on Wikipedia and elsewhere, Rev. Wright served six years in the U.S. military, in the Marines and the Navy.

As a cardiopulmonary technician in the Navy he attended then-President Lyndon Johnson during a medical procedure -- and was duly thanked by LBJ.

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Not all who have jumped on the Wright affair can claim the same service to his or her country, of course. One thinks, for example, of William Kristol, who referred in a recent New York Times column to "Wright's thoroughgoing and conspiracy-heavy anti-Americanism." No trace of patriotic military service in Kristol's CV, although he is often in favor of the use of U.S. military power abroad.

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One other generally forgotten item on Rev. Wright's resume: He was part of a mission to Libya led by Rev. Jesse Jackson in 1984 which resulted in the freeing of Navy pilot Lt. Ronald Goodman who had been shot down over Lebanon -- a service to the country recognized by then-President Ronald Reagan.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogi...

Robert O. Goodman is a former A-6 Intruder Naval Flight Officer and graduate of the United States Naval Academy who served as a Bombardier/Navigator. He was shot down over Lebanon on December 4, 1983. Captured upon ejection from his stricken plane, he was held for multiple days. His release was facilitated by Reverend Jesse Jackson.

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Goodman was held for over a month, during which the US government made numerous attempts to free him. He had a few visitors, including Ambassador Robert Paganelli who brought him Christmas dinner.

In January 1984, Jesse Jackson travelled to Libya and Syria along with Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan. The mission's peaceful purpose was accomplished, as they secured the release of Goodman, who was essentially a prisoner of war.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan welcomed LT Goodman at the White House January 4, 1984, hours after he and Rev. Jackson arrived back in the U.S.

Reagan said that LT Goodman "exemplified qualities of leadership and loyalty" and said Jackson's "mission of mercy" had "earned our gratitude and our admiration." In turn, Jackson praised Reagan for sending a letter to Syrian President Assad calling for cooperation in bringing peace to Lebanon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Goodman